This invention generally pertains to the removal of organometallic compounds from aqueous media. The removal is accomplished with use of polyamide absorbing materials such as Nylon 6 or Nylon 66.
Many organometallic chemicals have toxicological properties that render such materials injurious to man, lower animals, fish and other life forms. Organometallic compounds of mercury, tin and lead are particularly hazardous materials and, accordingly, considerable effort has been expended to minimize environmental contamination by these classes of compounds.
Organometallic compounds are generally non-ionic, but are sufficiently polar to result in finite solubility in aqueous media. Often, such compounds are extremely toxic to fish; for example, low parts per million concentrations in manufacturing plant effluents can result in ecological damage.
The removal of trace levels of organometallic compound contaminants from aqueous media is difficult to achieve. The contaminants are not sufficiently ionic to be efficiently removed by conventional ion exchange resin treatment technology. Likewise, the compounds are often too polar in nature to permit efficient removal by absorption into activated carbon because such absorbant type is generally more effective with non-polar organic contaminants.
It is known to use polyamide absorbents to separate blood cells. In this regard, please see U.S. Pat. No. 4,256,588. In addition, U.S. Pat. No. 4,079,001 discloses the removal of anionic and cationic dyes from industrial effluents with use of polyamide absorbents. Also, U.S. Pat. No. 4,059,512 treats biological fluids with polyamide absorbents to remove endotoxin, a lipopolysaccharide. However, none of the above mentioned patents teaches the use of such absorbents to remove organometallic contaminants from aqueous media.